1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:13,880 My name is Pam Smart and back in 1988 I adopted a little terrier who I called JT and I used 2 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:17,160 to leave him next door with my parents in their flat. 3 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:20,640 They noticed that he seemed to know when I was coming home. 4 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:23,360 This happened whether it was in the morning or in the evening. 5 00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:27,400 It didn't seem to matter when I came home or how I came home. 6 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:28,640 He always seemed to know. 7 00:00:28,640 --> 00:00:35,960 In 1994 a friend gave me an article from the Sunday Teigraph wanting people to get 8 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:39,880 in touch if they appear to have dogs that knew when their owners were coming home. 9 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:46,000 So I replied to the article and got in touch with Dr. Rupert Sheldrake and then he contacted 10 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:51,960 me and we started to do experiments with JT because of course I didn't believe that 11 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:55,240 JT did this but clearly he did. 12 00:00:55,240 --> 00:01:04,480 So we did about 100 detailed experiments on JT's behaviour and we had to rule out routine 13 00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:09,800 so we came home at different times and sometimes I didn't know when I would be coming home 14 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:15,920 so there would be completely random times and sometimes I came home in a taxi because 15 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:20,280 we wondered whether he could hear my car or I would come home in a friend's car or even 16 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:21,280 on foot. 17 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:27,360 These experiments ruled out all the obvious explanations of JT waiting for me by the window 18 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:29,440 at the time that I used to come home. 19 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:33,600 It couldn't have been the routine, it couldn't have been hearing. 20 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:38,960 So Rupert Sheldrake believed that because we'd ruled all these things out that we were 21 00:01:38,960 --> 00:01:44,480 left then with JT picking up my thoughts and using some form of telepathy. 22 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:52,800 In November 1994 the science unit of the Austrian state television got in touch ORF and they 23 00:01:52,800 --> 00:02:01,200 wanted to do their own experiment with JT so they came across from Austria with two cameras 24 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:06,560 which they synchronised on their time codes to milliseconds. 25 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:12,800 One camera stayed with JT and my parents in their flat and the other camera took me off 26 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:18,960 in an around Rounds Bottom and they'd film me intermittently during the day and we were out 27 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:24,480 for nearly four hours and then I was sat down on one of the benches in Rounds Bottom and I was 28 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:29,120 asked Ripe-Hum so do you think you're JT now? 29 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:35,600 We are going home, this is a time that we choose and at that point they what you see on television 30 00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:41,680 is they split the screen and JT was asleep at my parents at my mum's feet and at this 31 00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:49,440 very second well five seconds into me being told that Pum we're going home JT gets up and walks 32 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:54,800 across and takes a position up by the window where he waits for me. When the Austrian footage was 33 00:02:54,800 --> 00:03:02,320 shown on British television the skeptic Richard Weisman said it could be explained by hearing or 34 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:11,760 routine and not telepathy so Ripe-Hum's show break and I invited him to come and do his own experiments 35 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:17,920 with JT Richard Weisman came to Rounds Bottom and did four experiments he did three experiments 36 00:03:17,920 --> 00:03:23,520 at my mum and dad and one at my sisters and he got exactly the same results that we've been 37 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:31,520 getting with JT. A day to show in the Weisman experiments that during the main period of my absence 38 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:39,280 JT went to the window four percent of the time when I wasn't coming home and 78 percent of the time 39 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:45,600 he was at the window when I was coming home which replicated the experiments meet Andrew Pichel 40 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:53,280 Rake had been getting. In 1997 on British television there was a program called secrets of the 41 00:03:53,360 --> 00:04:01,760 Sykes where the skeptics tried to debunk anything paranormal and Richard Weisman showed the JT footage 42 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:09,680 claiming it was all coincidence and that there wasn't anything telepathy. JT is apparently an 43 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:19,120 amazingly telepathic dog. JT the dog's telepathic talent was shown on the paranormal world of Paul 44 00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:24,960 McKenna in what was built as a genuine experiment. It's psychologist Richard Weisman one of the guests 45 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:30,400 on the show found himself wondering whether the story served up to the viewers was as remarkable as it 46 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:42,640 seemed so he set up his own experiment. We filmed him continuously over a three-hour period and at one 47 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:48,720 point we had the owner randomly think about returning home from the remote location and yes indeed 48 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:54,720 JT was at the window at that point. What our video tape showed though was that JT was visiting the window 49 00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:59,440 about once every ten minutes and so under those conditions it's not surprising he was there when 50 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:05,600 his owner was thinking of returning home. These clips that Weisman showed make it look as though JT was 51 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:11,360 continually going to the window and if we look at this one we can see that JT is just reacting to some 52 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:17,920 dogs walking past outside and in these clips which he was trying to use as a wave debunking 53 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:24,240 I am actually coming home and that's JT reacting to me coming home and I was astonished and upholded 54 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:31,840 to read headlines and stories in the British press with Richard Weisman claiming to disprove 55 00:05:31,840 --> 00:05:38,960 JT's abilities. The times psychic dog is no more than a chance. Daily Mail 56 00:05:39,840 --> 00:05:47,600 How JT's home in instinct came on stock. The independence pets have no sixth sense say scientists 57 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:55,760 The Daily Telegraph. Psychic pets are exposed as a myth. Pamsmart and I conducted two series 58 00:05:55,760 --> 00:06:03,360 of experiments with JT. The first of 100 tests was not filmed and the second series was filmed 59 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:09,360 on videotape. The videotape experiments showed very clearly the time course of his behavior. 60 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:15,200 When Pams was not coming home he very rarely went to the window when she was coming home he was 61 00:06:15,200 --> 00:06:20,800 there most of the time. Average is from 30 different experiments are shown in these graphs. 62 00:06:23,120 --> 00:06:30,320 The last ten minutes of the graph is the first ten minutes of her home with JT. It's shown 63 00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:37,840 with a filled circle and in every case he's at the window most when she's on the way home. Sometimes 64 00:06:37,840 --> 00:06:42,720 he went to visit the window for reasons nothing to do with Pams coming home like barking at passing 65 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:49,600 cats or dogs but we've shown all those instances in these graphs. Richard Weisman's experiment 66 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:55,840 showed essentially the same pattern as can be seen from these graphs. I pointed this out to him 67 00:06:55,840 --> 00:07:03,440 when we met in September 1996 but he paid no attention to what I said and never mentioned 68 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:10,800 at my own research 100 videotape trials compared with four that he did at Pams and my invitation. 69 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:16,720 The reason he was so keen to debunk this claim is that he's a committed skeptic he believes that 70 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:22,400 psychic phenomena are impossible and because they're impossible then people who make these 71 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:28,080 claims must be either foolish or fraudulent and must be some flaw in the experiment. 72 00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:36,320 In 2012 Richard Weisman published a book called Paranormality where he continues with the JT experiments 73 00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:42,480 and trying to debunk them despite Rupert Scheldreck and I pointing out that he's claims are completely 74 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:48,640 untrue and if there's one thing I've learned it's to be skeptical of the skeptics.